Sweet sensation

Year 1984. Somewhere in Filmistan studios, a hindi movie scene is being shot where the hero comes back to the village from the city. And the mother is full of happiness and to express the same, she makes one recipe for his son. To put in Bollywood lingo she goes" Beta haath mooh dho le, maine apne haathon se tere pasand ka gajar ka halwa banaya hain." The next scene has few high octave rendition of the words ‘Gajar ka halwa’ with special emphasis on the word ‘Maa’

Decades later, with the western influence may be the ‘Maa ke haath ka gajar ka halwa’ is fast disappearing from our movie scenes, but its one desert which has caught my fantasy for its rich filmy past, vibrant color and the motherly tag attached to it, which makes you long for it when you are away from home.

To cut the Sunday afternoon boredom, I decided to try out the recipe. That meant rushing to Walmart and getting all the ingredients to give it a perfect taste. The most essential ingredient is getting the Sweetened Condensed milk. Rest all the ingredients Carrot, Milk, Butter were already there. And off course few nuts to add-in and garnish.

This recipe can be summed up as 15-15-6. The grated carrot(1/2 kg) and 1/2 cup of milk to be heated in microwave for 15 mins. After that add 200ml of Condensed milk and another 15 mins. And last a scoop of butter, little sugar, crushed almonds and pinch of cinnamon/ cardamom powder and then 6 mins of last heating session and the recipe is ready.

My Experiment with Beef

My stomach craved for the beef cutlets which my mother makes. As I strolled across the meat counter at Hannaford, I could not resist picking up the minced beef. I was entering new terrains. Before this, I had never cooked beef in any form. I decided to make the Beef Cutlets, my mother's way, and the only help I had, was of my watchful eyes which had captured numerous images of my mother making it over all the years. Offcourse, as you all know by now that I have to achieve the feat with the microwave only.

I tried to pick up all the Indian Spices I could, so I was well equipped to make a sumptuous meal for my first Ramzan iftari. I started off with washing of the meat and I met with my first blocker. Draining minced beef was really tough without a proper weapon. I had to make do with my hands. I always had comments from my mother that I used to drop a lot of food while eating, but I blamed it on my long fingers which left large gaps between them for food to escape. Well, the same fingers ditched me and made my draining efforts more arduous.

As it is true for all meats, the next step was to marinate it well. I added Ginger Garlic paste, Chilli powder, Coriander powder, Garam masala and salt. To add a touch of my own I added finely chopped mint leaves. And then it was break for an hour and a half. The marination looked like perfect dough. I added a little of moist bread to the dough. Once the dough was ready my mother used to ask me taste the same for the spice and salt. Though tasting raw meat was not a great idea, but I used to always oblige her. I decided to skip the tasting session.

I soon realised that I was missing out a key ingredient. The maida biscuits powder or rawa. I decided to substitute it with bread crumbs. Since i did not have dry bread, I made bread crumbs out of the soft fresh bread I had. This was the second mistake, as I struggled to equal up my mother's recipe. I took a portion of the marination rolled on my hands into flat cutlets and spread it on the soft bread crumbs. After that, I rolled it in egg. This was the most cumbersome activity as the cutlet absorbed all the egg on one side and there was no egg left for the other side. I added butter and quietly put it on to a plate and pushed it in microwave for 3 mins. After another 3 mins I changed the side and kept it inside for another 6 mins. Well the result was bad, 12 mins cooking made the beef very hard and turned it a little black and the egg layer was all rubbery.

I ate it with no complains, but for the second round I skipped the eggs, went only with the breadcrumbs, reduced the cooking time to 6 mins and the result was not that bad.

You must be wondering what was my first mistake? Skipping the tasting session. The meat was less in spice and salt. I added chopped green chillies and more garam masala and a little of salt.

In the third round, I did away with the Bread crumbs as well and reduced the cooking time to 4 mins and the result was amazing. Check it out.....

A day when....

The high heat setting in the commercial dryer does not dry your clothes.
The knife refuses to slice tomatoes but slash them.
The cilantro freezes to ice in the refrigerator.
The only news on television is about n th investigation of MJ's death.
You forget half of your grocery in the super market.
The car refuses to align with the parking line.
The onions leave you sobbing more than ever.
The conditioner makes your hair rough.
You stop being a cleanliness freak.
You feel a creased shirt should be in fashion.
The recipe you cook tastes like porridge.
The vending machine gives you back 16 coins of 1 dollar.
You feel like screaming at the people who smile at you.
The only visual you see outside your window is the cemetery across the road.
The toilet paper feels like a sand paper.
You hallucinate that you are getting suffocated in pounds of flesh meat.
At prime time there are back to back episodes of 'Ghost Whisperers'.
Your naked eye can locate all the microbes in the air.
The carpet design appears like a thousand bed bugs crawling at you.
.... I am just having a bad day today.

Flew from US

I feel a new Index need to be determined for all the countries. 'Cost of Life’ as valued by the country. When 3000 lives were lost in 9/11, US deemed fit to open a war against terrorism by blowing out Al Qaeda, Taliban and eventually Afghanistan. Mumbai lost more than 200 civilians in the terror attack on 26/11, but all the security measures are still crawling up the bureaucracy ladder. And larger issues faced by the country will dwarf it further; Swine Flu is one of them.

On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organisation(WHO) signaled that a global pandemic of novel influenza A (H1N1) was underway by raising the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6. But it took a young child's life for the administration to awaken to the Killer Swine Flu pandemic. The callous attitude lay bare by the fact that the screening of travelers at the airport was almost nonexistent, till the first death from Swine Flu in the country was reported.

I did watch a Pandemic Special on History Channel, which put forward a theory for the arrival of new species of the virus attacking mankind. The theory stated that the new virus travelled with the comets from the outer space. They would be deposited on the Stratosphere. It would take a decade for the virus to travel down. But sun being the nearest star, influences this with its energy thereby hastening the virus trip down to earth. (This reinforces a slight orthodox thought that one should not eat during eclipse). The birds are the first to inhale them and spread them during the migratory journey.

So, while we always wondered about UFO and aliens, these microorganisms from outer space will rule us for the next few months.

"Mumbai Schools to remain close for 7 days."

I have been waiting for this for really a long time, but it never happened during my school days nor college days.

Drug companies are making huge profits in the wake of the pandemic which has risen much faster than the earlier subprime crises. The sale of soaps, tissues, masks have sky rocketed. Chemist shops, media all are up there for making profits. They must have wished for good times during recession and their wish is granted.

This all reminds me of the story 'The Monkey's Paws' by W .W. Jacob. "Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it." So, this is a lesson for all to realign what we long for in our lives. For the next 7 days, enjoy the captivity of the house and students be prepared to spend your Diwali vacations in school.

I did watch 'Love Aaj Kal' and felt that Saif Ali khan was too regressive in a character which is reminiscent of his character in 'Hum Tum' and 'Salaam Namaste'. Imtiaz Ali as a director wonderfully portrays the relationship dilemma of his characters, Viren (Abhay Deol) in 'Socha Na Tha', Geet in 'Jab We Met' and finally Jai & Meera in 'Love Aaj Kal'. The funniest remark by Saif in the film is when asked about ‘fresco’ and he retorts back that he is only aware about disco.

Apart from Jai (Saif) who flew from US for Meera to India, the next big thing to fly to India is a wave of new set of Cookery Reality shows. The Food Network channel currently airs 'The Next Food Network Star' in US, where all from housewives to chefs compete for the top post. Last week saw Melissa d'Arabian, a housewife from Texas, winning the coveted crown. Another set of shows are 'Iron Chef America', 'Chopped'. If they are launched in India, you know where you first heard it.

Five Step Chicken Biryani

Marinate boneless chicken with curd, lemon, red chilli powder, Garam Masala, mint leaves, coriander powder and green chillies for an hour.

Heat half an onion for 10 mins- 12 mins with a blob of butter in microwave till they turn brown. Add them to the marination along with two large spoons of salsa sauce and salt as per taste.

Cook one and half cup of rice in a separate bowl in microwave for 8 mins. The rice needs to be left a little undercooked.

Empty the marination at the bottom of a large bowl. Now spread the layer of rice over it with a little butter and then push the bowl in the microwave for 12 mins.

Cut half an onion, one small tomato, mix them with handsome quantity of coriander. Add half a green chili and salt. You have a side salad ready for your Chicken Biryani.

+ On heating, curd loses water. Ensure you balance your recipe so you have an ingredient which absorbs that. In the above recipe rice will absorb the excess water.
+ Combine meat with raw onions, as they are best when it comes to lowering cholestrol.
+ After dinner, the first thing you do is the dishes. You relax, and the sink stinks for the whole night.

Gorge on the lovely microwave grilled chicken

I owe this to my wife.

This recipe is more interesting than its name, well you cannot grill in a microwave, but this has taste which is as good as Grilled Chicken or Barbequed Tikka.

This is a quickie which I made, but you need to plan 2 hrs ahead as the chicken needs marination.

Marinate four pieces of chicken tenderlions with a big juicy lemon, a spoon of ginger garlic paste, a spoon of red chilli powder and half a spoon of Tandoori chicken masala. Add salt to taste.

After two hrs, pick up each tenderlion and spread them on a microwave safe dish. pour the remains of marination evenly on the chicken. Cut four cubes of salted butter, place it carefully on each of them. Place it in Microwave on the Cook mode for 8 mins. Later, turn the chicken pieces on other side and slide four cubes of butter on each piece of chicken. This time they will melt. Push it in the microwave for the final 3 mins.

Garnish the dish with white onions and capsicum.

This quantity serves three people - Me Myself and I

Key to make this recipe wonderfull.....less of everything...masala, lemon , salt....but lots of taste and offcourse tenderlion.

Trivia:
The tenderloin is an especially tender cut of meat due to its infrequent use, following the general rule that muscles closer to the spine are more tender as they are not exercised as frequently as others.

This is located under the breast of the chicken and will be weakly attached to the breast when the chicken breast is removed. it will be long and slender with dimensions comparable to a finger.

PS: Follow this post as I explore microwave cooking... I am locked up in US with only microwave in my suite kitchen.

Movie Review:Luck By Chance

My Rating: 3/5

It's a feel good movie.The movie follows the life of the Bollywood strugglers Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) and Sona (Konkona Sen). The film could have aptly titled as'Inside Bollywood', as it reveals all the happenings within the industry. This fictitious screenplay by Zoya Akhtar is as real as it can get without being dark like Madhur Bhandarkar films.

The best part is that none of the characters look like caricatures.While growing up when we saw Hindi films (1980's and 1990's) we always felt that so many things were unreal, a lot of ham scenes and cliche scripts/dialogues, this one undoes all that.

Farhan Akhtar once again after 'Rock On' has proved that he is Jack of all trades and master of all. The lead pair convince you to the core, the characters they play. Konkona Sen has acted well especially when she breaks up talking to the producer in the vanity van.

Of the remaining cast, Rishi Kapoor has played the character of aging producer very well.This role was due for a long time for him, as earlier he has been playing the boring, stereotype father. Dimple, Juhi shine in thier minuscule roles. The music is pleasant. 'Bawo Re' and 'Hawain Sunati hain' are hummable compostions.

Zoya in her directorial debut has lived up to the expectation of the Akhtar Talent stable. This one is a must watch and will relax you with it's freshness on a Sunday afternoon.

This is the essay I wrote for my fifth grader niece

Humour In Life.

Disclaimer: This essay is not intended to hurt anybodies sentiments.

Wake up in the morning - Brush your teeth - Go to School - Listen to the Teacher - Back at Home - Complete the home work - Play for few hrs - Sleep and then again wake up the next morning. Life gets routine. I complained to SUN that my life is so boring. SUN replied "Oh check my routine, I rise from east, make people warm and then set into west. Does that sound interesting to you?"

I asked SUN to take a chill pill. SUN just smiled and got back to its work.So, a little bit of humour does makes life easy, interesting and reduces stress in our lives.

A lot of incidents happening with us and around puts smile on our faces, and helps us put away our worries.I will narrate few such incidents and thoughts to add humour in your lives. Have you seen People boarding the Buses. THEY DO SO IN A QUEUE. bUT THE DEFINITION of queue in India, is All at one time - not one by one.
I accompanied Mom for grocery shopping she suggested we buy a soap which last longer. I started searching for a soap brand starting with the letter 'K'.

One day we had a discussion who is the richest cartoon. My sister said its Richie Rich but my Daddy said it's Lallo Prasad Yadav. He is rich and offcourse a cartoon.
Whenever my aunt used to make egg-omlettes for Breakfast,uncle would find egg shells in it. Tired of eating crunch omelettes with egg-shells in it, uncle put a note over the eggtray : BREAK-FIRST.

We children smell through our nose, but our Parents pay money through thier nose. We eat food through our mouth, but the other day my mother was eating her own words. We hear through our ears, but I wonder Why parents pull our ears? May be that's the best way to clean them. We see through our eyes, but our parents always have thier eyes on our future.

The Prize distribution at the school, if it gets a little different this time.
Instead of BEST GROOMER - BEST BROOMER
Instead of BEST CONDUCT - B.E.S.T Conductor
Instead of BEST TEACHER - Best Torture
Instead of BEST ATTENDANCE - Best Dance (AT TEN - dance at 10'o Clock)

We all have dreams to attain super powers. Once in the school Bus we all the fourth grader girls, discussed if we could attain super powers, what we would become. One said Spiderwoman , the other said SUPERWOMAN , one said BATWOMAN. Confused the first grader girl said "I want to become HE-WOMAN"